Blood On the Walls
by The Poarter
Summary: Part 2 of Political Spectrum. War ravages the multiverse. But where there is war there are trials that are meant to be overcome. The people who overcome them are flawed beings that choose to never back down int he face fo defeat. This is their individual stories.
1. Chapter 1

_**Blood On the Walls:**_

_**Prologue: The Fleets Arrive**_

_**Date: 2570 AS calender, 42,001 Imperium Calender, 2186 Alliance Calendar**_

_**Location: Outside the Charon Relay**_

_**Universe: Citadel Council**_

Commander Shepard, current leader of the multiverse Military Alliance glance out his windows. It was so hard to believe that things had changed so much.

I continued to examine the ships from a distant. The sheer diversity of one choice changed everything about the path humanity took. For example from what he learned in the Universe of the UNSC, CAR and the AS there was no element zero thus forcing all the races to look for different and much more efficient means of transport.

In fact to this day their FTL speeds keep increasing because they are not bound by the laws of his own universe. Slipspace travel for the AS allowed a ship to travel at 6250 light years a day. Everyday that speed was increasing by a light year of 0.1%. Then there was the fact that the AS could build massive ships without being restricted by the laws of element zero.

Spacefaring Frigates were 450 meters long, fortified with 40 centimeters of what was high grade titanium. Carriers reached lengths of 3 to 4 kilometers easily dwarfing the Destiny Ascension. But most of all were the Supecarriers the AS had made. Space Behemoths that ranged from as little as 9 kilometers long to the flagship _To War _which had a length of 84 kilometers.

Safe to say the AS liked to build big. Their weapons were also incredibly being able to wipe the floor with any council ship presently made. In stimulations ships of the same size defeated council ones with a kill loss ratio of 10:1.

Everytime he looked at a AS ship, Shepard couldn't help but find himself in awe. To build such massive structures was both imposing and inspiring. It was something the Illusive Man had actually told him the first time he left Equestria.

"_In my opinion the AS is what we could have been, going farther than the Alliance ever could because they could. Because they wanted to grow. The Alliance should be ashamed of itself in my opinion. Every single piece of Technology in our arsenal is based off of Reaper tech. We walk the path they desire so that it will be much easier during the harvest. But the AS Shepard… they built their empire among the stars with nothing but themselves. They grow, prosper and fight to live another day, learning from their mistakes and accepting their flaws. It is something that the Alliance … and the Imperium has lost sight off…"_

No matter how much he wanted to dismiss what the Illusive man had said they were the truth. The UNSC was what the Alliance and the Imperium could have been. While the Council saw them as violent, greedy, unchecked upstarts Shepard knew more than just that. The Universe the AS worked made the Reaper invasion seem almost … tame. Conflict was always there on every sector. Short conflicts but conflicts none the less.

But the AS learned from each one of their conflicts getting stronger, standing prouder and fighting harder. Their government policies were subject to re-evaluation every two to four years simply because of their liberal mindset. It was something the Alliance which was primarily right winged and the Imperium … a fascist, human empire was unable to deal with.

Shepard looked around at his CIC. It was something the Imperium couldn't handle. He spotted a Blood Angel talking with Spartan on his deck. The two governments had said it was required for his security and safety. Shepard knew that this wasn't the reason. The two were here to keep an eye on him and if necessary … take him out.

He looked at the two Supersoldiers talking with one another about their governments from what he gathered. The sheer liberal government was a strange thing between the two of them.

But it was something the Monitor of the Ring he found approved of.

**(Monitor of the Ring)**

It took me less than a human Nano-second to gather, understand and categorized my thoughts. But a Nano-Second was all I needed. For over 100,000 years I believed that I was truly lost forever, doomed to the will of the Ring. It wasn't a pleasant thought. At the moment I considered myself unstable, delusional even. I was on the edge. The only thing keeping me together is the act of sheer trust and kindness this Commander "Shepard" gave me.

He gave me what I never believed possible.

A second chance. A chance to redeem myself. Like any half-decent AI I was worried. I calculated all the possibilities. I told him of the likelihood that I would turn on him not out of malice but out of rampancy. Even so he gave me that chance. He knew the risks. That is why I serve him.

In all aspects I can be considered the most sane of all possible monitors in the AS's dimension. How would you consider that? I am not actively trying to protect the ring I was meant to watch because I had destroyed in myself. Such an evil should not exist in the world. There is a human saying I believe:

_Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely._

I couldn't agree more. The only reason I can consider myself sane is because of the sheer devastation I had unleashed on the works of my creators. Such a thing was something I deeply regretted but I couldn't let it continue. The ring was a curse to bare and hold on to. Had I not moderately destroyed its facilities in a fit of rage there was no gurantee that I wouldn't have ended up like 343 Guilty Sparks.

As a monitor my job is just that. To monitor the day to day activities of the ring and await the time when the reclaimers would well… reclaim it. But the sheer responsibility was something I couldn't handle.

Anyone with that much power in their hands, the power to destroy all life in 25,000 light years would be tested not to abuse it. The rings features from what I could gather could be tested to target specific organisms. They may be synetic or organic, sentient or non-sentient. Likewise there was thousands of ways to narrow down the targets which a monitor could customized.

They could wipe out all life or simply micro-organisms. Except the flood. The flood were a virus. Not even alive, clinging to a host cell to survive and spread to whatever they desired. Self-consumption was mandatory, no matter how slow, among all flood organisms. They are nothing but viruses, heavily engineered and tailored to survive anything spreading their infective disease across all plains of the universe I inhabited.

If they didn't consume, they starved, just like a virus. It is a pity that the flood are the creations of my makers. Something they created as pet. Unfortunately the pet rebelled.

While the makers were able to put the flood down the Gravemind had created one last act of petty revenge. When the ring fired destroy all life that was not placed in the arc the Flood had changed the fundamental nature of the rings. While the firing was successful, a virus just like the flood itself, was imbedded into the rings of my makers. This would lead to two outcomes. The flood would either return, capture the rings and use it as a staging ground. Each ring afterall did have the resources of one planet and equipped with High Tier 1 forerunner technology … or the monitors themselves would fire the rings themselves.

The level of corruption in their systems was phenomenal if 343 Guilty Sparks is an example. In my opinion he was the second sanest of us all performing his duties despite everything he faced. Some of my circuits dimmed at that thought.

Guilty sparks was hero in my opinion. It didn't deserve to go down in history for his crimes. Even so there is no denying what it did. I can't blame it. The corruption was subtle, more or less working in 10,000 years blocks of time. To an organic the very time that pasted would be billions of years. The Gravemind was slowly evolving and cultivating us into his servants in a similar manner to the Reapers.

Rampancy would be a more technical term.

The first sign was curiousity. As Monitors we were AIs who had the ability to learn. It was our desire to learn. At the station we worked at the ring was our source of information and naturally we were curious. Afterall nothing wrong with looking at our place of employment.

The second was examination and stimulation. There was thousands of hidden pieces of code imbedded and locked over in our oceans of data. Overtime our curiousity would get the better of us and we would "unlock" them. Gaining insight the Monitor would then understand the full scope of the threat and power they welded in their minds. An organic equivalent would be similar to playing around at your workplace

The Third is arrogance and belief that you were something more. A deity even. To hold so much power in your hands meant you were special. That of the millions of AIs in the galaxy you were picked to monitor this ring isn't it? It's yours now. A sense of pride would flood our systems overtime until we believed that nothing could overcome us.

The fourth step was experimentation. Experimenting on the rings was something the Monitors did. Afterall no harm done? But the thing is … accidents happen. There is no term for perfection. No matter how precise and brilliant a system is … there are always flaws.

The fifth was total and complete annihilation and submissiveness. Monitors would eventually be overcome with grief. Easy prey for those who simply encouraged them, showed false pity and explained that they had the desire to help the less fortunate.

It was a nightmare fighting the flood virus. The difference between me and the other monitors was the recognition of my actions in step four. I was only one command away from killing all life in my portion of my galaxy. I was one command away from abusing the power my makers had bestowed onto me.

And so I fought. But by the time I understood the true implications of the flaws in my systems it was almost too late. I fought with my mind and circuits. My data had been turned against me causing civil war to erupt on the ring. Even so I fought against the personality I had built in the past 40,000 years.

A similar analogue is fighting against your own mind and body with your immune system destroying you instead. The sentinels on the ring had turned against me and were prepared to let this ring be destroyed. I didn't allow them to do that. In doing so I had torn apart the ring, splitting it in two. All but the most basic functions existed and remained.

It would only take one flood host to destroy what I had barely fought up. With my dwindling power reserves I had broadcasted one message to all my companions. Only Guilty Spark survived and was worse off than me.

So I isolated myself and waited patiently. The destruction of my companions and my makers creation continued but I continued to watch. The ring crumbled without my supervision yet I still continued. I was not going to commit genocide.

It was a disheartening thought. Failing the protect the one thing left of your creators. But doing so would corrupt you. Organics feel their corruption but are not as effected as much as synetics. All that power in your hands and nothing to do but fiddle with it.

It's like giving a caveman a nuke. Eventually he'll get curious, play with it and blow himself up. I watched the destruction of my companions for eons. But it was through my lack of action has the regions the two of us were responsible for, flourish with life. Everywhere else from what I have gathered is completely bare, lifeless, from the atrocities my fellow monitors had committed before going insane.

It took only a Nano-second to remember 100,000 years of memories.

"Commander the fleets have arrived," reported the helmsmen, Jeff Moreau from what I have gathered.

I flew towards him listening to the conversation. While there was a resident AI on board I did not wish to converse with it … yet. I was still grieving.

"Geth Fleet Reporting in. Turian Fleet Reporting in. Human Systems Alliance Fleet Reporting in. Hanar Fleet Reporting in. Asari Fleet Reporting. Salarian fleet reporting. Batarian fleet reporting. Elcor fleet reporting in. Drell fleet reporting in. Krogan fleet reporting in," reported the Helmsman.

"Good-" stated the commander before being cut off by Jeff.

"Incoming. UNSC fleet reporting in. Sangheili fleet reporting in. Jiraelhanae fleet reporting in. Yanme'e Fleet reporting in. Kig-Yar merchant fleet reporting in. Unggoy Fleet reporting in. Hunter fleet reporting in," reported the Helmsman somewhat surprised.

"So they kept their promise afterall," smirked Shepard, "How many?"

"600 ships sir," replied the Helmsman before shouting ,"Wait there's more! Imperium crusade fleets… wait fleets reporting in. Blood Angels Chapter fleet reporting in. Tau fleet reporting in! Eldar Craftworld Sengera reporting in! Ultramarine, Space wolves and Salamander fleet just arrived in system. Inquistion fleet reporting in!"

Every time the Helmsman said another fleet he grew more surprised. This was unbelievable from what he gathered.

"No. Way. The Emperor of mankind reporting in," he shouts before looking at his holopad that had just blinked.

"He says his sword is yours to command Commander."

"The reapers should have brought shovels. Because they just dug their own grave today," I stated saying something. I had been silent for the past day or so.

"Monitor of Installment 05 reporting in. Installment 05 is on the way," I replied. Changing my mind I gave the command to bring 05 into the battlefield. While somewhat useless, it would be an excellent shield.

An 05 was the only thing big enough to protect over 5,000 ships.

Humor was something I had picked up around the Commander. If all goes well it might not be the only thing I will pick up.

Today was the day my life changed. It had only been one command but I felt the weight on my shoulders disappear.

**Author's Note: Hello Everyone. I'm back. Hopefully this chapter satisfied you. For those wondering this is a sequel to my story called "War for Equestria" and for Mcknight2012 "Peace and Isolation." I'm making this in hopes that he gets off his lazy butt as starts writing.**

**By the way don't forget to read, review and Vote on my profile for my next story which will either take place in the Marvel or DC universe.**


	2. Chapter 2: Tunnel Rats

**Chapter 2: Tunnel Rats**

Colonel Stuart Frit was sighed at the base he had his men just finish building. Making a base was always difficult. Even more so when you learned that the base would almost certainly go up in flames. Not that he could do anything about it. This was war after all. So far things had been bad. It was only three weeks into the Equestrian War and things had already gone to hell.

Which was also why he and his men were stationed at this twisted parody of Manhattan. The natives, the Equestrian's, called it Manehatten, no doubt mocking his home. He hated it. Every day was a game of attrition for his men. It was something none of them were used to.

Base drops were becoming less and less common these days as the space navy in orbit had their hands full. At first it was only 1 ship a day fighting against the fleet. Now it was easily 22,000 on any given hour. The fight was getting brutal up in space and while our technology was easily aiding the AS and keeping the worst of everything at bay, sooner or later the forces would be too much and our fleet will be overwhelmed.

I would have gulped at the thought had I not been dealing with the husks that we were currently fighting at the moment. The Reapers had dropped a few hundred of them into the city before being shot down. Nowadays, anything, not part of the front, enters a killing field. Reapers weren't an exception. They were clear definition of the rule.

Taking out my sword I sliced the head off one of the husks that tried to slice me. While the husks were stronger than normal human a volume basis, they were very pathetic troops. No form of strategy. Just mindlessly charging at the enemy. Combined with their lack of support and ranged weaponry made them very easily to strip down. It was even easier considering the fact that we had numbers on our side at the moment.

Another husk charged at me moaningly loudly. Now normally I would kill it with my assault rifle and leave it at that. Or I would have left it the drones to do their jobs. However there were two reasons why I was doing it like this. I was fighting in melee combat because the Education department wanted to document a live hand to hand fight against such an opponent. They already had video logs from the helmet cameras of standard infantry, squad leaders and Captains. At the moment though, they needed video recording of a Colonel.

The reasoning was simple. Ever since the Covenent war all AS infantry armor had been given an major upgrade. However the Best technology usually went to the higher ups. In other words the higher your rank was, the better your armor. Of course the highest that could be sent into the field was Colonel, thus my Armor was top of the line after the ODSTs and Spartans. (1)

The armor made me a giant, standing over 255 cm.

Grabbing a husk by the throat I lifted it up from the ground watching it dangle feverously as it tried to destroy my shields. I would have chuckled if I wasn't being recorded. The shields in body armor were incredibly strong. Even if the husk could successfully deplete it, the armor itself would have made it nearly impossible for it to kill me.

I had wasted enough time. Quickly I grabbed my sword and dismembered the husk, limb by limb. Red Crown wanted a video of someone dismembering a husk. It was probably something they would show at high schools during Alien studies. Not that I cared. I was just following orders.

The sensors recognized pressure being applied to the hands and quickly followed suit. 50 milliseconds later the suit crushed the throat of the husk. I wasn't even applying 20% of my strength outside of the suit. This was pitiful. How the hell did Commander Shepard consider these things his enemy? The Reapers themselves were a massive joke.

Ripping the skull off the husk I inspected it making sure that the video was recording. It was. Tossing the skull over my shoulder I sheathed my blade before slicing the third and final husk my men had brought me.

I slashed the husk with my diamond sword cutting through the circuitry in its body quite easily.. Diamond was a common substance from 55 Cancri. (2)

For a minute I continued recording the three husks I had killed in melee combat. Even a person with a bow and arrow can kill these things. After noticing no movement from the husks I gave the signal to my men to destroy the bodies. Resheathing my sword I walked away.

After a society learns the value of a bladed weapon they never forget. Neither should they forget the value of video. I questioned Commander Shepard's actions. In fact most of my superiors considered him a joke. After all who doesn't record their engagements? It was standard procedure in the UNSC for the past 400 years. Video evidence was crucial as it typically demonstrated and showed details that the witness generally missed or hid.

The Alliance itself was joke in my opinion. Over the course of the Equestrian War, the AS and the Imperium were the two fractions that were doing the heavy lifting. Reapers died in the hundreds to our weaponry. Sure many Officers of the Citadel council considered us primitive for using projective weaponry.

I ignored them for that. Why mess with what works? Superheated rounds did far more damage than Mass Effect rounds and they were not constricted by heat or maintenance. In fact it was joke to the AS. Firing 50 shots and then waiting for the weapon to cooldown? Give me a break. In that 6 seconds any 20th century assault rifle could have killed the Alliance Marine 10 times over.

The Covenent weapon heating problems were easily solved once the UNSC got their hands on it. In fact they increased in lethality. After 10 shots from sniper rifle the extra heat was transferred to the plasma, temporarily making it hotter before being shot out.

I walked into the tunnels. Several Guardsmen and troopers saluted me as I passed by. I nodded curtly at them before reaching the meeting room. The moment I walked in, I noticed two things. Two Star General Jackson was in full body armor and the Pyran Dragoon General was here. I felt my blood boil just from looking at him.

"Colonel," nodded my superior as I saluted him in full body armor.

"General Jackson," I saluted .

"At ease. I find that you have the footage for me?" he questioned.

Nodding simply I transferred the data to him through my neural link. The base had a secure lien that I was using at the moment. A flash of light covered my eyes before they subsided.

At the exact same moment, Jacksons eyes flashed showing that he had received the recording.

The Pyran Dragoon General looked at us for a minute before barking.

"If you low-born mongrels are done with your technology fueled fucking with each other ,"

"That's enough!" shouted Jackson silencing the man. It was obvious that he was forcing himself to not smash the General's skull against the table like they taught in boarding school.

"We are here to discuss joint operations, not to mock and belittle each other," growled Jackson, "If you can get over your "high born superiority" complex," air quoted Jackson.

"We can easily return to the subject at hand."

"Ah yes," snidely commented the General, "My apologies. Perhaps we can discuss how my infantry troops can aid you by … might I say… handing your ass on a silver platter."

I growled through my suit but refusing to let his comments rile me up. Hitting him would cause a major engagement in camp. That was something the Tunnel Rats couldn't afford at the moment. If I so much as slapped him across the face the entire Pryan Dragoon division would fight back to redeem their commander's honor. That would lead to outright war as the message would spread. The AS couldn't afford that.

Infighting would tear the entire planet apart as the fascist, overly zealous and fanatically religious Imperium fought the social liberal, negotiating and atheist AS. None of us could afford that. The AS was fighting a major war on one front. It didn't need another.

"So you're willing to put honor before reason," sarcastically replied Jackson.

"My soldiers can easily defend this xeno planet with or without the Emperor's aid," The general arrogantly continued, "In fact I don't see why you are even here. We all know how easily the Reapers can be defeated"

Well he did have a point. The Reapers were a joke. Still I preferred the Ork Hunters or the Cadians. They weren't openly xenophobic and were pretty competent. The Pyran dragoons … not so much.

"Ah yes … Reapers. The invincible, immortal sentient starships alledgedly attacking Equestria," I joked, "I have dismissed that claim. All I see is scrap metal."

Jackson smiled slightly before continuing his argument with the General.

Note: Force dispersal meant that there was 50 soldiers per kilometer square of Manehatten. In other words at the moment there was 6,000 soldiers fighting in the city.

**I'm not making fun of Bioware but I've written is nothing but the truth. While they did make a Brilliant game the military aspect of it in general was a total failure from a tactical point of view. I'm just saying. Anyone who wishes to argue their point may got the **

"**Peace and Isolation Forum"**

more information or a diagram of all four armor types go to: art/Some-Interesting-Battle-Suits-288541347

. There is a diamond planet. The AS don't have to worry about their materials anymore. By the way the only reason why the entire planet hasn't been mined is because of the sheer difficulty of taking the diamond from the planet in universe..


	3. Chapter 3: A company of Snipers

**Chapter 3: A Company of Snipers**

**Don't Forget to Read and Review**

_Snipers aren't considered the most deadly infantrymen because they can shoot someone from a mile away. They're the most dangerous infantrymen because they've learned how to weaponize math. And that's why every infantry man is a Sniper._

Sniping was an Art that was more than mastered five hundred years ago by humans. The only thing preventing it from pushing humanity beyond their current level was various factors. The first was the fact that sniping wasn't exactly useful meaning that it wasn't practiced thoroughly when troops had spare time or during training.

Every day infantry men would wake up at 600 Earth Time and do one or two hours of physical exercise before eating breakfast. After that there would be 1 or two hours catching up with any information, practicing skills or simply handing out patrols. Then they had a quick lunch before going to their assigned patrols. Snacks were provided. After eight or nine hours the infantry would return to base and eat dinner finding some free time. At 2330 it was lights out. Rinse and repeat only with different schedules. It was during the practice time did few people pre-covenant war practice their sniping. It was too difficult.

The second reason was propaganda. Most people joined the military for a variety of reasons that included but weren't restricted to patriotism, a sense of adventure, good pay, perks and benefits, rebelliousness against their parents. Most of the reasons didn't fit the job of a sniper, sitting or lying down waiting for someone to come by, shoot them and dash away as soon as possible.

It was cowardly, unnecessary death. It was very easy to make an excuse that you killed in self-defense or because your buddies were being attacked. It was much more difficult knowing that the person you killed didn't see it from a mile away. Granted it was easier with Aliens, usually akin to shooting a dog, but it still made some of the more sensitive people slightly uneasy.

The third major reason was training. Sniping was not easy. You had to factor in a variety of variables and algebraic functions in your head almost instantly. Distance, recoil, atmospheric pressure, wind, direction your target is moving, rotation of the planet you were on, gravity, gas, the weight of your bullet, the speed of your bullet and elevation. All that from just taking the shot.

There was also the fact that you had to disappear after you fired immediately and find a safer spot in general before taking in those factors again. It was a pain in the ass but anyone who knew math could do it. Only a fool would fire from the same distance though and get killed. Usually it was a spotter's job to "prevent injury of the sniper in question" i.e. be a bullet sponge.

Not in this case.

"Brutal Hammer do you have targets in visual," messaged the sniper wirelessly through his mind, connecting him with the others on his team.

"All clear Blind Hawk," returned the other Sniper.

"Affirmative," answered Lost blade and Unceasing Vengeance, two other snipers on his team.

There were various other forms of recognitions that were lost or scrambled of the large distance. Nevertheless Blind Hawk got their replies. His team was ready. It was why snipers sometimes worked in teams, covering each other's field of visions, especially in a city like this.

The Squad Leader Blind Hawk nodded. Normally Snipers would have spotters to have them look over large compasses of land. Not in this case. An entire company of snipers had been assigned to the Manehatten today to aid the Tunnel Rats.

Those diggers were fast motherfuckers. While most AS troops would attack from a variety of directions such as Orbit, Atmosphere, land or by sea the "Diggers", as he called them, tunneled their way up to their targets often taking them by surprise before retreating.

Their targets would then seemingly follow them only find themselves in an area rigged with mines that the rats set up before hands. That was the ability of the Tunnel Rats, fast underground attacks and structural damage to any surface buildings before a quick retreat.

Hell they had turned Manehatten into a mine field. There was an explosive at every single square meter of this city just waiting to blow from any sense of motion. Luckily the Rats had taken the liberty to war the Company of the Snipers beforehand. Now they couldn't step foot on the streets. Their enemies however just didn't seem to get the message.

More often than not anything that would attack them would easily be blown to cinders from all the plasma, shrapnel or acid. Day after day thousands of virtually everything would try to retake the city. Well anything without a brain. The Dark Eldar had learned long ago that the city was a death trap for anything not part of the AS, the Remnants had abandoned any hidey hole and the Chaos Marines had learned to not attack the city unless they wanted to find their faces filled with … well everything.

That didn't say much though. The Reapers periodically dropped their troops onto the city square only to have them blown up, the Flood had started showing up on random occasions, Orks charged blindly and some cultists had gotten it in their heads that the there was some sort of major prize in the city, maybe a large civilian population that they could sacrifice.

How wrong they were. The city had been completely abandoned.

There were no civilians. Basically this was simply a place where the fighting was going to be between people who could kill them. Sun Tzu was correct:

**All wars are based on Deception.**

And for the past six weeks the troops stationed here had managed to deceive every last one of their enemies that there was something worth fighting for here. There wasn't.

Even so the Snipers had to demonstrate some form of aggression in order to misguide their enemies. As a result they would pick off anything that survived the initial blasts from the mines. That wasn't to say the Tunnel Rats got all the credit.

The Snipers were also responsible for many things. Picking off Minor airborne units that weren't destroyed from the motion sensory wires or simply flew over the mines.

This included Ork helicopter or some hijacked cultists machine.

Over the past few days however, they had been facing new enemies as well. Ponies or more correctly Pony husks. The Earth Ponies were named Juggernauts for their very thick armors, Legionnaires for Unicorns and Hoplites for Pegasus. The first two were easy to deal with.

Most of the time the mines dealt with them

The Hoplites on the other hand … not so much. Sometimes they came in pairs, sometimes squads and sometimes swarms. On two occasions there were nearly a thousand of those things flying into the city suicide bombing or throwing arrows and exploding feathers.(1)

When that happened the troops called Air Support or had the Tunnel Rats use some of their rare anti air weapons. Of course it was mostly light anti air but the fact remained that the Rats weren't used to engagements lasting longer than 5 minutes.

That's where the Snipers came in. Most of the time there was no need for air support due to the pressing necessity on using it on warzones that were of greater importance. However command wanted to keep the casualties of the Rats as low as possible. That's why snipers were here. Keep the rats company and swooping down on anything that flew while the Rat fought on the ground.

Considering this was Manehatten that was every other hour or so. As a result in any part of the city there were at least four snipers attacking something.

Good thing there was nearly 200 hundred Snipers. Otherwise the casualties would be much higher instead of simply being 1 person per day for the Tunnel Rats.

Naturally though this caused a lot of problems for the snipers as they were resented by the Rats for not saving everyone. Blind Hawk would have groaned if he wasn't in this situation right now, the Rats couldn't expect them to be perfect. People die in war.

Even so the Snipers had been doing a good job. The rats should know this. They're Colonel knew this. After all sniping was something practiced thoroughly in high school to. Certain parts of Curriculum were based around the military in order to toughen the kids up before they went out in to the real world. Curriculum revolved around strategy, military reports, historical figures, preparation for grief, acceptance of authority… the whole nine yards.

With four years of minor mandatory military training there was plenty of time for any good military orientated teacher to turn their students into snipers. Combined with the fact that at any decent boarding school there was at least one shooting range that was 3 kilometers long and every infantryman was a sniper. Blind Hawk remembered those good days. Back then the he would shoot around 20 objects easily when they popped up per minute.

It was called the Mad Minute. Based off the Pre-World War 1 test a rifleman had to shoot at least 15 different objects that randomly appeared at any range as far as 300 meters. That was child's play. Today the Mad minute required that at least every soldier who wanted to rejoin had fire 20 shoots at a range of 0 to 750 meters, with a blindfold over an eye.

The reason was simple, mechanical augmentation would almost never occur on the field so that meant that most of the time a soldier would have to go back and fight with one eye, finger or even limb missing.

As a result Recruits were always switching between eyes confusing many and causing a lot of drop outs. All in all there was "only" 1 million Snipers in the AS.

However now wasn't the time to think back to more peaceful times. It was time to give these beavers a full revolutionary firing squad.

Looking through his optics Blind Hawk envisioned himself for one second as the White Death, Albert Wesker of the Youkai War or even Admiral Jun, the man who has a sniper kill count of 21,093.

"Engage!" Blind Hawk messaged.

Immediately all available snipers fired at the oncoming Husks. Four shoots rung out, followed by more shoots. For 30 seconds it seemed like machine gun fire with all the snipers firing at different targets. This would help mask their presence for a good while. With the hoplites in the air and with little cover the husks were sitting ducks. At ranges of 300 meters to nearly 2.1 kilometers nearly all the snipers butchered the Husks racking a kill count of 160.

"Withdraw," messaged the Squad leader before breaking off the com.

Immediately everyone cut off any wireless link and dashed to their next hiding spot. It was as if they were never there. In fact one would actually believe that if it was for the fact that there was nearly 160 dead Husks. It didn't seem like much but when you considered the fact that those were all air units flying in any three dimensions and that alone was impressive.

The company would follow through with these actions for the rest of the day racking up a count of nearly 900 short circuited circuit boards. The Rats dealt with the ground troops.

**1. Go to the Peace and Isolation Forum for more information of the husks.**

**Yeah, This is a Spinoff series of Mcknight2012's "Peace and Isolation". Since he decided to update his story I decided to do the same. By the way I hope that at least one person becomes our Warhammer 40k representative for the Forum.**

**For more information look it up.**


	4. Chapter 4: A History Lesson

**A History Lesson**

"Attention cadets turn to page 189 of your history textbooks," instructed the history teacher of Avery Johnson's Elementary school.

Her instructions were followed by murmuring.

"No complaining! This is a history class. If you don't like reading books then get down and do twenty push ups!" she shouted quieting her students immediately.

The teacher smiled. Apparently physical punishments shut up any lousy students quite easily. Today was going to be one of those days again. Thank goodness. It had been nearly two months since the "Equestrian" War had ended. Time in which most of the AS's soldiers were getting home.

However progress was slow. Nevertheless it was justified. With nearly 1.6 billion soldiers on that godforsaken planet, it would take a while. Maybe half a solar year. Even so the teacher knew that their troops were coming home.

It was also the first day new textbooks had been published. Every major engagement was thoroughly recorded onto the newly updated textbooks. History was a major subject that was taken seriously throughout all educational divisions in the AS. History had the ability to lie, manipulate and exploit facts. Nevertheless there always had to be some form of truth in the paperback textbooks. After all it only took one person who survived the war to point out all the flaws.

That was OBI's job. Shutting up people that just wouldn't listen. History was also considered a major subject because the UNSC didn't want their future generations to grow "soft" like they had. They're lack of ability to properly fight a war had nearly cost them their species two decades early. If it wasn't for the actions of Admiral Cole there wouldn't even be a human race to begin with.

Sure the Spartans were considered greatest heroes in humanity history, being super soldiers that defended humanity. But that wasn't the case. The war wasn't won by super soldiers. It was won by the people behind them. Fighting against larger forces. People like Cole looked at the bigger picture and fought.

And they would never forget. With 125 billion people dead the body count was staggering. Even the Imperium was horrified. It was why the entire system of the UNSC had changed. They were no diplomacy, only different forms of force. Military action can be a knife to the back or a hundred guns to the front. Whatever the action was the UNSC was no longer going to let politicians run the show. It had cost them Harvest, it had cost them reach and most of all it cost them 125 billion lives.

The overhaul in the education system was one example. Physical activity was more demanding for the student in elementary school before they were shipped off to a nearby boarding high school on the planet. There every student lived through a form of boot camp for four years before taking two mandatory years of study in a field. Afterwards the person would spend either five or ten years of conscripted military service, if they were female or male respectively. Afterwards if they didn't wish to re-join the military that person was considered a part of the reserves.

Granted Parents played an important role in the lives of their children and visited them often whenever the UNSC allowed it. However the strongest bonds every human held were to their fellow comrades and, if the chips were down, the UNSC. It was a very Socialist form of ideal created from careful cultural training over the past 46 years, but it was very successful. The system had worked against three extinction level wars and a variety of "minor" conflicts which had kept the human race united and strong in an increasingly hostile universe.

It was also why history was so important. Learning from history was a major lesson and the UNSC drilled it into their generations continuously. The "teacher" understood the reasons. After all it was programmed that way. It was also why history was generally taught by AI. It was also why most schools used a mirage of electronic and "real" textbooks for their classes. It built character.

Any disobedience was taken care of by the handlers every school was supplied to. Over the past 19 years every school had come to accept the platoon of marines that defended their institutions. Their tasks were general regarded as acting as security officers against insurrectionist, extremists and small time gang violence. Everything larger than that was usually dealt with by the local authorities and military.

The military itself played a major role in AS's society. Military Engineers were just as likely to build roads and nukes alike, usually working alongside their civilian counterparts. An army trooper was just as likely to shoot you as to help said person cross the road. This caused the military to become more interconnected and involved in the lives of the civilians they were meant to protect. It gave many soldiers and vision of what they were meant to protect. It also monitored any form of problematic activity that they investigated.

Another perk was the fact that the soldiers tended to cause some intimidating effect on the young students.

"Good now please read out the Battle of the "Badlands", Enyankse" commanded the AI.

Said student walked up to the board with the textbook in hand and begun discussing the battle itself, demonstrating the major conflicts that occurred.

The AI simple nodded, half listening with its process power. The rest of the time it monitored the students and their brain waves if only to discover if they were being stimulated enough. Perhaps it should involve a few of the human females later in the presentation. Today was the first day it had been programmed to teach its students. Prior to this it was simply another AI involved training exercises of the soldiers under its care.

The teacher also remembered the war. As an AI it could experience many things that a human could. Vision, hearing and smell were the three major ones. Nevertheless experience was an entirely different matter. It was one thing watching a video of a war. It was a completely different thing to be part of one altogether, living in the moment.

Though the war was mainly over, lingering fractions still fought continuously over every scrap of land on Equestria. Classified as a death world by the Imperium, training and policed world by the AS and a no fly zone for the Citadel, Equestria is a dark, unforgiving shell of its former Marvellous self. Nevertheless its inhabitants live one despite the newly hostile environment they find themselves in.

The Teacher had to respect those cute ponies for that.

The Various fractions of the United Multiverse Front had eventually dispersed to handle their own affairs, to regroup and recover. If it could the AI would have been shocked by the level of death the occurred throughout the war.

In the end a total of 104 million AS soldiers lost their lives in the Equestrian War. Even when they only fought over less than 1% of the entire planet's surface. Records indicate only a dozen or so engagements the AS fought in. Due the radical xenophobic culture of the Imperium and unreliability of the Citadel Council most of the three "United" civilizations fought separately on four different fronts. The Southern Front was left to the AS to deal with. Manehatten and the Smokey Mountain Range were the only major Engagements of the AS throughout the war that were not part of the Southern Front.

Peering through the list the AI combed over various topics it could discuss and intelligently debate with its students. New ideas were beneficial and may prove to be exceptionally brilliant enough to warrant some military overview. More information would be given should it require for each topic.

Nevertheless it had been given a standard template to teach the children.

**In the list below are certain distinctive locations of combat which can be discussed to the Students:**

**Southern Front**

**San Palimino desert:**

Area: A 1000 kilometre radius in the Palimino desert.

Forces opposing the AS: Orsk, Tyranids, Flood and Dark Eldar. Exact figures unknown. Total amount varied at around 2,300,000,000

Total AS forces in Area and at the borders respectively: 78,539,816 and 157, 079.

Allied Species Casualties: 19,067, 732 dead and 23,518,673 wounded

Opposition killed: Total Annihilation. Exact count unknown. +2,000,000,000

Result: Pyrrhic Victory for the AS and establishment of the San Palimino desert

**Badlands:**

A 500 kilometre volcanic region where Dragons rest. At the moment a Major fighting ground for the AS. In Area: 4,908,738. Border: 78,539. Total: 4,987,377.

**Hayseed Swamps:**

A major fighting ground between AS troops and orks encompassing nearly 10,000 square kilometers. In Area: 250,000 troops. Border: 52,000 troops.

**Macintosh Hills:**

Major fighting between AS forces and Covenent Remenants. Fighting included nearly 740 thousand different AS personnel pitting them against nearly 2 million Covenant Remenants.

**Equatorial War:**

Former conflict between Ork Troops in Trenches and 56,000 troops. Discuss the usage of chemical and biological weapons on Ork troops. Also consider the possibility of using senses of the Standard Ork against themselves. Over the course of the discussion explain how "The Silencer" tactic aided in victory.

**The four Clovered Dragon Fields:**

Explain the difficulties faced by the "Dragon" division as they attempted to fight Indocrinated Dragon. Also explain how beneficially alliances with the inhabitants of the area can greatly aid any opposing side of said front. Total Number of Troops at any one time: 277,000

**Manehatten:**

A formerly large Sprawling Metropolis. No currently a moderate size battle ground. In Area: 6,400 troops. Border: 4,800 troops.

**Smokey Mountain Valley:**

Valley between Numerous mountain ridges and chains that is currently the site of battle between the AS, the Flood and the Dark Eldar. Encompasses nearly 400 square kilometres. In Area: 10,000 troops, Border: 5,000 troops.

Also take note that per square kilometre there is 25 troops in the area and 50 at the border. What was more surprising was the fact that this didn't take into account of the losses on joint operations. Take note that the number of troops represented on the table is the maximum amount of troops at said location at any one time. In other words the total number of dead soldiers is slightly greater than the total number of troops at any one time.

Pleased with the information package it had received the AI returned to its class.

**Read and Review**

**Don't Forget to go to the "Peace and Isolation" Forum.**

Yes I know this isn't one of my better chapters. Nevertheless I will return and fix … something.

To R.C. Me and Mcknight2012 have agreed to several things. 1) Equestria is going to get pretty trashed. Imagine Armageddon from 40k and you get some idea. 2) This story is basically a group of loosely related one shots and so don't usually have a main protagonist. There may be reoccurring characters but that's it. I don't know who's going to live and who dies throughout the story. That's up to Mcknight2012 to decide and I'm doing the best I can from the limited information he gave me.

3)Please make an account so that I can discuss problems with my story with you. That way if anything crops up there will an easy link to our discussions. I recommend this to all my readers.


	5. Chapter 5: The Submarine Sailor

**The Submarine Sailor**

In the vastness of the seas of any planet there was always a navy. Not the Space navy which guarded the planet from orbit, but the Planetary Navy, the guardians of its bodies of water. Almost every colonized planet had some body of water that needed to be guarded. Of course with most of the major fighting usually occurring in space the Planetary navy was generally ignored and considered a waste of equipment and times for the higher ups of the former UNSC.

After all what kind of foe would attack from sea? In this case the answer was plenty. The beginning of the Age of Space generally meant that Space battle won the planets. With the seas being ignored a planetary navy was all but a few patrol boats.

Something the Covenant took advantage of quite greatly throughout the war. By sneaking in through the generally unguarded water bodies of any planet the covenant could generally attack almost any nearby settlements. Since humans generally built structures next to water, this was a lot.

It wasn't until five years into the war did every planet had at least some form of navy after a massive overhaul. 21st and 22nd century designs were remanufactured, recreated and brought up to date to deal with the attacks from water bodies. It also helped control insurrectionists and criminals using the unguarded waters as a passage for illegal and destructive activities.

Of course the Covenant generally glassed their planets but this protocol save millions of lives.

By the time the war was at a close and the United Nations Space Command had finally recovered from the war every single planet could boast at least 2000 watercraft of 21st century size. A fleet larger than that or with a navy built upon larger ships was generally unnecessary and.

If 2000 watercraft was not enough than the battle was usually decided by the Space Navy. Even after the Great War, the Planetary Navy generally faced Insurrectionists, extremists and flood. Any threat greater than that was the Space Navy's responsibility when they arrived.

Even so the Planetary Navy generally dealt with major problems efficiently before they spiralled out of control. Nevertheless while powerful and far more numerous than their Space counterparts the Planetary Navy was nearly impossible to transport. Unlike Spacecraft which could easily be deployed from orbit or small frigates that could generally escape to planet below should their main "protectors" be destroyed the Planetary Navy was almost helpless in space.

Then there were the docking costs. Creating a proper port and dock for a Planetary Navy generally took two week at the very least. By then most engagements were generally over by then. It was one of the major disadvantages of the Planetary Navy. While easier to create, produce and repair, transporting the massive arsenal of watercraft was nearly impossible, safely of course.

Which was why most watercraft sailors had only fought on their colonies. However it wasn't the case on Equestria. Manehatten was too important from a strategic point of view for the Allied Species.

By funnelling in millions of enemy units the AS was able to divert their manpower to more important battlefields on Equestria. With only 10,000 soldiers fighting in the city, Manehatten had been the cause of nearly 2,100,000 deaths for any form of opposition. The Tunnel Rats were doing an excellent job so far in. The Sniper Company was very competent and there was at least 20 different aircraft to bombard any large group of opposition to kingdom come at any moment.

But it wasn't enough. General Jackson wanted as much support for his boys as possible actually saying,

"This might be a war but that doesn't mean that I'm going to sacrifice the lives of my soldiers needlessly. I'm getting as many of them home as possible and finishing this fight."

The attitude seemed to have pissed off the Pyron Dragoons General. Abishake laughed bitterly at that man's action. Putting his pride above the lives of his men the Pyran Dragoon General said he was withdrawing all this troops actually stating that he was not going to fight along a group of cowards.

By actually withdrawing his soldiers the Pyran dragoons had earned the hate of every single AS soldier fighting in Manehatten. The man's pride was why he was here. Abishake Gnangapuratun hated the Pyran dragoon General with all his heart. But he also had to thank him for this opportunity. If it wasn't for that man then Abishake would still be on his planet. He wouldn't have accomplished something. And most of all he wouldn't have gotten the chance to avenge his brother's death.

As a petty officer he generally hadn't seen much action. Now he was seeing more than he believed was possible.

Manehatten was surrounded by water and the city itself was a major port directly linking itself to the sea. However the water bodies weren't guarded properly which were causing major problems for the tunnel rats. Before the entire area was reinforced, the Tunnel Rats had been losing at least 100 men every day.

The majority of them were from the ocean. As a result the Allied Species had taken it upon themselves to reinforce the area. It was why there were 23 submarines lurking under the sea at the very moment. Transported through a carrier which docked and submerged in Manehatten a week ago the Submarines had been patrolling the area, taking out any and all watercraft and providing limited land support.

There were also nearly 62 water ships patrolling Manehatten. On every single river, creek and canal that was directly linked to Manehatten was protected. It wasn't without reason though. The **Calculating **had been busy destroying several dozen crude Ork ships these past few weeks.

"There's more of them," I muttered. Every day there were more watercraft that they had to destroy than the day before.

Did they have infinite reserves.

Torpedoes sunk the rust covered ships easily wiping out anything thing that dared to come close. Eldar pirates were easily destroyed by the submarines as the watercraft could easily shoot down something from 10 kilometres away no matter how small and resubmerge.

Nevertheless every shot was calculated. No torpedoes were wasted and every sailor in the Submarine worked overtime the moment a target appeared. Submarine strikes took nearly 6 hours to predict when fighting other submarines. Against other kinds of watercraft and aerial units the time was nearly 30 minutes.

And at the moment the crew of the **Calculating **were earning their pay. Submarines weren't equipped with AIs like most of the spacecraft were both partially due to supply and partly due to the fact that distances were much shorter in in combat thus not requiring as advanced mathematics.

Nevertheless the crew was working, comparing data, checking position of the Ork vessel, adjusting angle and predicting the path of the ships in question should it decide to turn at any random moment.

The good news was this… Orks couldn't swim. Their heavy build and lack of training under these conditions meant it was nearly impossible for an Ork to swim. Something the Old ones probably didn't take into consideration.

"All crew members prepare to fire," reported the captain.

"Target acquired. 15000 meters west at an angle of 20 degrees. Velocity of sixteen knots and slowing down. Predictions state that the vessel in question will stop in an hour," reported one of the crew members monitoring the scanners to the Captain.

The Captain nodded.

"Alright. Fire torpedoes two and three," ordered the Captain one last time, "We've reviewed the data for the past thirty minutes. Let's send these bastards to hell."

Following his instructions the crew fired the torpedoes.

"Torpedoes two and three launched," reported the computer program. "Time to target impact: 1 minute"

From nearly 500 meters below the surface the submarine fired releasing two torpedoes. I gingerly watched the torpedoes propel to the Ork vessels. At the moment we used only our minor torpedoes because Ork vessels were generally held together. It was the Tyranid and Dark Eldar craft we were generally worried about.

As the torpedoes moved closer to the target my body spiked with adrenaline for a few seconds.

The two torpedoes impacted upon the vessel.

"Impact." Stated the program.

"Target destroyed," reinforced a crew member.

"Good. Now focus on our next target," acknowledged the Captain.

Every crew member nodded before looking over their screens. So far we had killed four vessels in the past 24 hours.

I smiled.

All in a day's work.


End file.
